He hasn't roamed an NFL sideline since New Year's Eve 2006, Nick Saban's final game of an unfulfilling two-year tenure with the Miami Dolphins, a stretch during which he compiled a 15-17 record.
That's the only time, in Saban's 18 seasons as a college or NFL head coach, that he exited a football program with a losing mark.
So when it comes time, probably over the weekend, for all the NFL Draft pundits and self-proclaimed experts to assign those prerequisite, but maddening, grades to 253 selections exercised by 32 franchises over three days, they might want to start by putting the Alabama coach at or near the top of their report cards.
The Crimson Tide had four players chosen in the first round Thursday -- tailback Trent Richardson (Cleveland, No. 3), safety Mark Barron (Tampa Bay, No. 7), cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick (Cincinnati, No. 17) and linebacker Dont'a Hightower (New England, No. 25) -- and no other school had more than two. And the quartet of new Alabama millionaires was unanimous in its sentiments for the man most responsible for expanding their respective bank accounts to seven figures.
"He prepares you for this, both as a player and a person, and you're better off in both those areas because of it," acknowledged Richardson, the second successive Alabama player chosen as the top running back in the draft, to The Sports Xchange.
Said Barron: "He's the man."...................
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